At least for the time being, the Pittsburgh Penguins will have to brace for more injury-related absences among their corps of forwards.

While they recently got Bryan Rust back after a three-game absence, Rickard Rakell remains on long term injured reserve.

Additionally, Noel Acciari and Matt Nieto, both of whom played Thursday evening at Tampa Bay, were absent from the Penguins’ morning skate Saturday at PPG Paints Arena, which featured an otherwise full attendance.

Afterward, coach Mike Sullivan revealed that both Acciari and Nieto are being evaluated for lower-body injuries.

Neither player will be available for Saturday’s home game vs. Philadelphia.

Acciari and Nieto have spent the majority of this season skating as the Penguins’ respective fourth-line center and left wing.

Acciari has two goals and an assist while Nieto has chipped in a goal with three assists.

Saturday will mark the first game either player has missed this season.

Their absences also present problems for the Penguins’ penalty kill, which, as of Saturday afternoon ranked eighth in the NHL with an 85.3% success rate.

Nieto’s 2 minutes, 26 seconds and Acciari’s 2:25 average of nightly shorthanded time on ice rank first and second among the club’s forwards.

Notes:

• The Penguins recalled forward Joona Koppanen from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League (AHL) Saturday morning. Koppanen, 25, would be in line to make his debut with the Penguins. A left-handed shot, Koppanen was signed to a two-year, two-way deal in July after spending six seasons in the Boston Bruins organization.

Boston orginally drafted Koppanen, a native of Tampere, Finland, with the 135th pick (fifth round) of the 2016 NHL Draft. In 263 AHL games, he has scored 42 goals with 57 assists. Koppanen made his NHL debut with the Bruins last year, playing in five games. He has three goals and three assists in 18 games for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season.

• The Penguins are expected to start Tristan Jarry (8-8-1, 2.45 GAA) against the Flyers. Jarry has posted a .919 save percentage on the year. Rookie Sam Ersson (4-3-1, 2.78 GAA) is anticipated to start in net for Philadelphia.

• At their morning stake Saturday, the Penguins deployed the following lines, defensive pairings and power-play groups:

59 Jake Guentzel - 87 Sidney Crosby - 17 Bryan Rust

19 Reilly Smith - 71 Evgeni Malkin - 10 Drew O’Connor

63 Radim Zohorna - 20 Lars Eller - 13 Vinnie Hinostroza

43 Jansen Harkins - 15 Joona Koppanen - 77 Jeff Carter

27 Ryan Graves - 58 Kris Letang

28 Marcus Pettersson - 65 Erik Karlsson

5 Ryan Shea - 7 John Ludvig

First power play: Crosby, Guentzel, Karlsson, Malkin, Rust

Second power play: Carter, Eller, Hinostroza, Smith, Letang

• Blueliner P.O Joseph, who has missed five straight games and is on injured reserve, skated Saturday morning as part of a fourth defensive pairing with Dmitri Samorukov.

• The Penguins are 9-3-1 over their last 13 games against Philadelphia. They swept their intrastate rivals last season (3-0-0) for the first time since 2017-18. However, the Flyers hold the edge all-time against the Penguins with a 163-101-43 record.

• Crosby has 53 goals and 71 assists in 83 career games played against Philadelphia while Malkin has scored 29 goals with 56 assists in 70 games against the Flyers. Since his rookie season of 2006-07, no defenseman has scored more points (49) against the Flyers than Letang.

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